The Forgotten Legacies
by Logos Minus Pity
Summary: Post-FFXIII-2 canon ending story. Fang and Vanille are awakened by their old friends as time begins dissolve. They all look for Lightning, for answers, and for resolution. Eventual Fang/Lightning
1. Eternal Oath

**The Forgotten Legacies**

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Legal Disclaimer**: **I do not own nor claim to own any aspect of the Final Fantasy series.

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_Author's Notes:_

_And so it begins. With the widely regarded dissatisfying canon ending to FFXIII-2, I decided to write a follow-up story to it, if only to provide me personally with some better resolution on the question of Lightning, as well as to tie together all of the loose ends that were left hanging (I do so enjoy tying up loose ends). _

_I still don't have an ending for this fully fleshed out (trying to put together everything left by the series in a manner that is both satisfying and doesn't pull a total deus ex machina is not an easy task—though of course now that I've said that I should prepare to eat my own words), but I thought I would go ahead and get started on this beast of a post-ending story._

_As a reminder to what is stated in the overall summary, while this story will contain eventual Fang/Lightning, the keyword in the aforesaid phrase is "eventual". I am not a fan of rushing things, and believe that development is crucial, not to mention that the event resolution is central to the story itself. In other words, be patient. It will come along eventually, I promise._

_Enough of my banter, though. It is with great pleasure that I present the first chapter of __The Forgotten Legacies__. Please read and enjoy!_

_~Logos Minus Pity_

_p.s. This is now Ch. 1 version 2.0. I have made significant modifications and additions in order to better fit the scenes as released in the Requiem of the Goddess DLC._

**Ch. 1. Eternal Oath [Prologue]**

Lightning was in the throne room of Etro again, and though she knelt on the tiled floor before the gargantuan crystalline throne, she did not kneel toward the throne. That would be pointless now. No longer would she be saluting the slumbering majesty of the Divine Goddess; the throne was merely a throne now, beautiful, yes, but bereft of its Lady. Etro was dead, slain along with her Heart of Chaos that had resided in Caius. It seemed that, at long last, Lightning's forever-war with the Guardian of the Heart was over, though not for reasons of celebration.

To say that Lightning was kneeling was not entirely correct. She crouched, really, huddled and fallen over the one thing that had always mattered the most to her, and that, like everything else, it seemed she was unable to protect. Serah lay on the ground before her, as lifeless as in the prior vision she had been shown. Whether it was real or another chaos illusion did not matter; she knew the truth either way. Though she may have defeated Caius, Lightning knew she had lost. Death was beyond her ability to save.

Serah, her dear younger sister. She had been the one truly chosen and marked by Etro, with eyes that saw through time and death itself. Any visions Lightning had seen was only through the timeless nature of the Valhalla, not through any gift given to her. She was only that which she had always been—a soldier. Etro had given her more tools to meet her ends, but she had never been among the chosen like Serah, or Yeul, or even Caius or Noel. She would have gladly taken the burden and price of a seer's eyes from Serah in a heartbeat, but things did not work that way. The Eyes of Etro, like all gifts from the Goddess, were arguably a mixed blessing and curse, but also could not be taken back once received. Though the visions would shorten the seer's lifeline, Lightning had been confident that with the timeline restored, Serah would be relatively safe. She was certain her sister still had many years left to live out and enjoy. She had been so sure, so confident in what little she actually knew. With the death of the Goddess and the dissolution of time itself commencing as the realms overlapped, the seer's eyes had exacted their final and ultimate price. Serah had been the one to pay for Lightning's folly. In her mind, all she heard was the certain and crushing pronouncement from Yeul.

"_Serah's death is your doing. At your bidding she began her journey, and thus her life was lost."_

"I'm so s-sorry…Serah," she whispered. Her heart felt like it was splitting as a few tears finally broke free and trailed down her face, and she wept unashamedly.

"Don't be sorry. And forget your tears—you don't need them."

Startled by the all too familiar voice, Lightning looked up to see Serah sitting casually atop the Throne of Etro. Her eyes were soft and intent on Light.

"No matter what future is waiting for us, I'll have no regrets. And no matter what end we see coming, I won't change my mind."

This was the real Serah, Lightning realized abruptly. Not some cruel mimicry made from shadows and illusions, but the true last vestige of her sister as she passed between worlds and her spirit moved on. At the same time, Lightning quickly pieced a few things together.

"You knew," her voice was low with grief still, and half accusatory as much as understanding. "You _knew_ what would happen." She didn't need to say what.

Serah did not directly answer, which was answer enough in itself. The illusion figure of Serah that lay before Lightning faded into nothing as the real Serah continued. "You taught me how to live my life. No matter what, we shouldn't give up hope."

Lightning stood upright. She unthinkingly reached out with her hand toward her sister. There was so much she wanted to say, but she didn't know how. "Serah…"

"I believe in you. You'll keep the future of this world safe." The younger Farron shook her head with acceptance. "So it's okay. I don't mind if I'm gone."

Then she smiled softly, and vanished into streams of chaos and white light. Lightning yelled her name and reached out desperately, but to no avail. She was not fast enough. She could not touch her sister. It made her want to scream with helplessness.

_Not yet! Please not yet!_

Perhaps some greater power heard her. Perhaps it was one last gift from Etro. Either way, as the light exploded outward, it enveloped Lightning, too, and for a brief second she was with Serah in world that had no beginning and no end. She held her sister close and hugged her, internally begging for her not to leave even as Serah's spirit journeyed onward.

"_Promise me, Claire. Promise me you'll remember me."_

Lightning found herself blinking back dots of white from her vision as the warmth of her sister slowly left her again. Though she was now stranded and standing alone back in the temple, Serah's final parting words stayed. They had given her one last beacon of light and hope in a world surrounded by total darkness. Her battle was over, her war arguably lost, but she was not yet finished. It seemed that at long last, this was her end of line. Over five hundred years ago by the time of the Mortal World, Etro had saved her from a death by chaos. It was time to repay the favor.

_I promise, Serah. For an eternity, I promise._

A shining stairway of crystal materialized before Lightning, leading a clear path up toward the massive Throne of Etro. She placed a boot on the first step, cautiously, and then with increasing purpose. Her footfalls were the only sound as chaos silently twisted and warped the world around her.

And suddenly, she stood in front of the throne, the steps she had ascended now gone and disappeared again.

Lightning brushed her fingers delicately over the armrest of the throne. Even now the normally bright and glowing crystal was dimming, its inner light fading and with it the all too fragile gate that separated the realms. But the crystal itself remained, physically unchanged and indestructible. Valhalla had altered the meaning of the word eternity for her, had changed her understanding of what forever meant. But there was one thing that Lightning knew was synonymous with eternal.

She could see now the vision of her way, her Focus, of her final act bequeathed upon her by the Goddess and unveiled to her by Serah. It was too late to save either Serah or the Goddess now, but her last act might help to stave off the encroaching destruction for the rest of mankind. It might maintain the hope that the Goddess had so loved in her children, and that Serah had so strongly lived by.

Bowing her head, she turned and sat upon the Throne of the Goddess, crossing one leg atop the other and laying her gunblade heavily upon her lap. The whole of the world weighed on her shoulders, and despair born from past deeds, greater than what she had ever known or imagined, threatened to consume her. But she would not fall to it. She would not give into the end. Not now.

In her heart, as much as her head, she needed to remember and to hold a wish.

It was more than a wish: it was a promise, a hope. Even with Etro gone, even with Serah…that promise always remained: the promise to protect, to atone, and to remember forever, no matter what. In her heart, Serah's words held. She clutched onto them with all her will and might.

The familiar rush of burning cold emanated out from over her heart, from where her old l'Cie brand, now blazing and complete, lay. Her legs grew numb and still as the crystallization quickly took effect. She had only seconds before she succumbed to full stasis. Lightning turned her head to the side, willing away her doubts, and hanging onto that small but persistent hope for the future. Her time was over now. But at least she could end it with some last gesture for those who were still left. She thought of Vanille, of Fang suddenly—she never would get that chance to rescue and see them again now—of all of her old friends and family. She might not be able to restore all of time, but she hoped that she could give them enough.

As her last breath passed through her stiffening lips, it sounded not like sigh of air, but like the mournful echo of Etro's Lament.


	2. Awakenings

**The Forgotten Legacies**

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Legal Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Final Fantasy

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Important Note_: For those of you who read Ch. 1 before this, the second chapter, was released, I have since updated Ch. 1. And by updated, I mean I have made large edits and changes in order to better match the canon revealed in the most recent Requiem of the Goddess DLC. (I _knew _I should have waited to start uploading this story until after the DLC, but sadly patience has never been a virtue of mine). The DLC does at least give me quite a bit more to chew on in the further development of this story._

_And now, here is the second chapter (or, really, the first true chapter, since Ch. 1 was more of a prologue—apologies for the tease). Things will now actually start to get going story-wise._

_Also, a warm thank you to the readers who left reviews. Comments are always welcome! Please enjoy._

_~Logos Minus Pity_

**Ch. 2. Awakening**

She awoke first to the sound of breaking glass, and second to the pain.

Her impulse was to panic, to try to remove herself from the source of pain, but she found her muscles struggling to respond to the flight instinct. But in the next moment the recollection of past experience kicked in. This had happened before; she had been in this exact situation. So instead of continuing to struggle, she calmed herself; she rode out the pain and forced her unused lungs to take a second, sharp and shuddering breath. The hurt quickly faded, and in its place bodily feeling returned. She opened her eyes blurrily right as the crystallization fully dissipated, just in time to crumple forward into another warm body.

"Vanille! Fang!"

The voice that called out to them was familiar, but oddly different than what her sluggish memories could pull up. She blinked rapidly, her eyes tearing with the bright, artificial light, until a strong pair of hands reached out to steady her and help to haul her upright.

"I can't believe it. You were right, Noel. It actually worked. They're back—we brought them out of stasis."

That was Sahz. She would recognize his voice anywhere.

"It was only a hunch. But I've become a lot more familiar with chaos than what I ever wanted to…unfortunately."

The voice that responded was definitely new, ending with a whisper. She couldn't recognize it all. It was obviously male, but sounded young. Not a child's voice, no, but perhaps a young man.

Fang held onto to her apparent rescuer with an iron grip, and felt steel muscles beneath her fingers. Once her vision finally cleared, it made sense.

"Nice hair, Snow," she quipped automatically, releasing her grip and brushing away his hands as she finally stood on her own.

"Fang. Welcome back to the living." He was smiling, but the smile was off. Though his lips were curled upward, the smile did not fully reach his blue eyes; they remained unseasonably dulled. Fang always described Snow as a man of big feelings. Anger, exuberance, sadness…whatever he felt always ran rampant across his face, but not now.

However, she barely had any time to ponder the change.

"Hope?" questioned Vanille loudly, looking more than a bit shocked. And when Fang turned she could see why. It was certainly Hope before them, but he looked to be at least a good decade older than the scared shadow of a kid that she remembered tagging behind Lightning. He had grown and filled out, and, she noted with a slight sense of chagrin, at the very least matched her in height.

Time had definitely passed while they had been supporting Cocoon, though she guessed significantly less than their last crystal slumber.

Hope smiled encouragingly at both of them. "Fang, Vanille…it's good to have you both back."

"Welcome back to the living!"

Sahz pushed through to greet them, wearing a beaming grin. "Damn good to see you up and moving again, woman!"

He enveloped Fang in a generous hug before turning to Vanille to do the same. "And you, young lady…I can't say how happy I am to have you back."

Once they had another minute to finish their reintroductions (and for Vanille to finish hugging everyone to death), it was too easy for Fang to tease a little bit as she stretched out her overly disused muscles. "Well, it seems like we had a pretty short nap this time, eh, Van? And here I thought you wanted your precious floating moon to stay up in the sky a bit longer."

"We might have had something to do with your premature wake-up call. You two would have slept for even longer than the half millennia you already had if we hadn't come to your rescue." Sahz gestured to the all of the occupants of the room.

"Five hundred years!" exclaimed Vanille, reeling at the information. _Then how in the world had the rest of them…?_

He laughed at that. "Heh. Let's just say we all got a bit of experience in time travel."

Fang shook her head. "And somehow I'm not all that surprised."

"But how did you wake us up?" persisted Vanille. "I didn't think you could wake someone up out of crystal stasis whenever you wanted."

"We didn't think so either." It was the first thing Snow had said beyond his initial greeting, and as he said it his gaze turned toward the back of the room, where a lone figure sat. It was young, young man, his head tilted downward so that his dark brown hair fell to partially obscure his face. Fang did not recognize him.

"Who's the kid?" she asked. His garb marked him as very distinct from the others. If anything, his clothing seemed almost more Pulsian to her, with leather ties and billowing fabric where the Cocoonians instead wore tight fitting synthetics with clips and buckles. At her somewhat dismissive statement, he looked up, a spark of life returning to his eyes for a short second.

"I'm not a kid," he stated. It wasn't said defensively, but as a simple fact, belied by the weariness in his face and the harsh emptiness that quickly engulfed his eyes again after he spoke. Though he looked to be the youngest occupant of the room, the way in which he carried himself suggested that he was anything but a kid.

Hope stepped in, trying to make introductions. "This is Noel. Noel Kreiss. He's the one who helped to wake you. He—"

"I can speak for myself, Hope." Hope bowed his head in acquiescence as the young man—Noel—heaved himself up from his seat with a sigh. "I'm Noel Kreiss, and I'm from a future."

Silence reigned heavy as he let the newly awoken women process the information. Fang exchanged a slightly incredulous glance with her adoptive sister.

"You're from the future?" squeaked Vanille.

"_A_ future," corrected Noel. "And not a pretty one. I was transported back in time to try and fix that future but…I…I've failed…"

For the first time since awakening, Fang looked—she truly looked—at the faces around her. All of them were heavy with the tired lines of grief and despair. She looked worriedly at Vanille and felt the first creepings of fearful anxiety begin to eat at her stomach.

"You're Serah's friend, aren't you, Noel? The companion of hers that she had to rescue from the dream world illusions after we helped her out of her own."

He nodded, choosing not to speak.

"Hey, where is that little Farron anyway? I thought you were all on a mission to find Lightning, not to wake us up early."

A weighted silence also greeted that question.

"And speaking of Lightning, where…?" Fang looked around, thinking hard and fast. "Lightning's not here…is she."

It was more of a statement than a question, and Snow seemed to sense that there was somewhat more behind it.

"Do you know something about Lightning?" he asked.

Fang nodded to Vanille when she looked at her in askance

"We saw Lightning, or a vision of her, right before you brought us back out of crystal stasis. She was sitting on a huge crystal seat—it looked like a throne almost. She…she was…"

Fang cut in to finish. "She was crystallized. In complete stasis."

"Then…" Noel trailed off.

Snow spoke at the same time. "That means…"

All of the men exchanged meaningful glances. At this, Fang felt herself getting exacerbated. She had just woken up, and was already filled with more questions and confusion than before.

"Can someone _please_ explain what is going on here? Since when did Lightning complete—let alone _get_—a new Focus? I thought we were done with the fal'Cie after Orphan."

"It's not a short or easy explanation, Fang, and what you said just changed a lot of what we know…"

"Hold up a second," interrupted Sazh. "These two have only just been woken up from stasis and we're already piling them on with more questions and worries than what they went to sleep with! No concern at all for if they're tired, or injured, or hungry. No concern from any of you if an old man like me is hungry, either…"

He trailed off into muttering while Hope and Snow looked sheepish. Now that it was mentioned, Fang found that she _was_ hungry, starving even. Crystal sleep would do that to you.

"Come on," said Hope, leading them through the doors and out into a hallway. "Let's get some food and then we can explain more."

It was a quick walk through the steel-lined hallways until they reached an open conference room of sorts, this one with huge windows that provided a clear view to the city of Academia beyond their walls

Outside, you could see the sprawling metropolis built on Gran Pulse soil with Cocoonian technology. And in the distance, there lay the recently shattered remnants of Cocoon, the ancient "Viper's Nest" that Vanille and Fang had given five hundred years of their time to keep holding up until Hope could build an alternative. There was still the sky above, and the earth below, and the sculpted mountains on the horizon.

But beyond that everything was wrong. It was completely and utterly _wrong_. The heavens were darkened and stormy, with any hint of the sun completely blotted out. Everywhere, violent clouds of chaos roiled and moved like living creatures, engulfing up portions of their world. And all about the air, ghostly stone buildings floated, some of them complete and some of them half-formed, but all connected by chaos, by a devouring energy that shouldn't even exist in the world.

"What…? Snow! Sahz! Hope! What is happening? What's wrong with, with everything?" Vanille yelled, clearly panicked.

Fang instinctively ran up to Vanille's side, protectively wrapping an arm around her adoptive sister's shoulders and pulling her away from the window; though what she could actually do to protect Vanille from the vast encroaching darkness, not even she knew.

Hope ran up to them both, making a placating gesture with his hands. "Vanille, calm down! It's okay, we're safe here."

Fang didn't miss Noel's underhanded murmur of "for now", making her shoulders tighten as adrenaline surged. She refused to move, staring down Hope for a few long, tense seconds. He may have grown older than her, but in her mind, he was still the young and inexperienced child, and she refused to back down until she got answers.

"Sit down, guys."

Snow spoke heavily and pulled out two chairs for them before sitting in one himself. After a pointed silence punctuated only by Sahz preparing several plates of food, Vanille took a seat, with Fang almost reluctantly following suit. Noel and Hope remained standing.

"Okay," growled out Fang, trying to cover her own fear with anger. "What the bloody hell is going on?"

"Easy, easy! You're nearly as bad as what Lightning was! Eat up! No sense in arguing on an empty stomach…"

Sahz slid a full plate in front of each of the Pulsians before taking a seat at the table and tucking in to his own meal. He dug into his plate with gusto, and even though Fang knew Vanille had to be as hungry as her, both of them had lost any appetite to do little more than pick.

When she opened her mouth to speak again, Hope sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, maybe this will be easier if you guys start. What all do you know since Orphan, if anything?"

Vanille's beryl gaze flickered over to meet Fang's.

"We know a bit. Even in crystal sleep, you can still be cognizant of some things going on physically around you, and of things that go on in dream dimensions, too. We saw what happened right after we defeated Orphan. We saw that first paradox happen, the one right after you guys all woke up from crystal stasis here on Gran Pulse. Lightning was near the base of Cocoon when a chaos rift opened, trying to swallow her. Then a power—Etro—intervened and—"

"—poof! Gone. Snatched right out of time." Fang finished theatrically.

Snow leaned forward, now interested. "So you two actually remembered it? I thought…Serah…was the only one."

"Well," tempered Fang. "Being in stasis is kinda like being outside of time, too, so we saw. And we remembered. Lightning went beyond our reach just as much as yours, though. She went to Valhalla."

"And that was about it for us." Vanille took over again. "We could sense Serah re-righting the timeline, and we even helped her out of a chaos illusion, but our view of the rest of you was limited by our physical entrapment in the crystal. So please, tell us what's happened, and what's going on now."

Everyone collectively stopped for a moment to glance back out the windows. Then Noel exhaled loudly and walked over to lean against the end of the table, folding his arms and turning his dark blue eyes upward.

"I guess I'll take the reigns here. I should explain how I got here, and met everyone. Like I said earlier, this isn't my time. I fell into a portal from my own world—over seven hundred years in the future from the crystallization of Cocoon. In my time, the human race had died out from war after Cocoon collapsed. I was the last person left in one of the last settlements on Gran Pulse when a time portal first appeared. That portal took me to Valhalla. And that's where I met Lightning. She was fighting a war there, one to protect the Goddess and to try and save the future. But because she couldn't leave the Unseen World, she asked me to. She asked me to find Serah, and once I found her, together we started to fix the series of paradox distortions that were corrupting the timeline and the future."

Noel proceeded to recount his time-traveling adventure with the younger Farron—their corrections of the distortions, Serah's realization as a seer with the Eyes of Etro, their encounters with Caius and Yuel, all of their hard work to save the future, all culminating in a final showdown with Caius in Valhalla. Snow, Hope and Sahz added a few bits to the story here and there, but otherwise everything leading up until now seemed to revolve almost exclusively around Noel and Serah.

"So what happened then? You solved all the paradoxes and stopped Caius, didn't you? And you built a new Cocoon and rescued us and everything, so how…?" asked Vanille, finally breaking the story-telling with a question. And Fang had to admit, it was a good question. As unbelievable as it all sounded, Fang had already endured more than her share of extraordinary events, and was accepting of everything they had been told so far.

"Yes, and that was the problem," said Noel. He was staring at the palms of his hands again, his voice nearly a whisper. "Caius wanted—no, he _needed_ me to be the one to kill him. I didn't know…I _swear_ I didn't know."

His voice was raw, and clearly pained now. His gaze had moved up toward Snow; Snow turned to the side, though, his jaw clenched and his eyes closed with grief.

"Didn't know what?" Fang was desperate for an answer, for anything to break the awful tension in the air.

"That with these hands, with my hands, when I struck down Caius, I destroyed the Heart of Chaos—the Heart of the Goddess. I-I slew the Goddess."

Hope took over, trying to better explain. "It's not a paradox anomaly or rift like before. It's the dissolution of time itself as the realms converge. Our world is melding with the afterlife…or Valhalla, as it's apparently called. And with that convergence, the future as we understand has been destroyed."

He turned toward Snow, who had gotten up and slowly made his way toward one of the windows.

"The destruction of the future," he repeated slowly. Though he was looking out the window, his eyes were glazed, as though he were looking beyond the horizon. "It must have been too much for Serah…she…she died. And I…I arrived back in this time too late, and there was nothing I could do about it." Snow pounded his fist against the window at the same time that he let loose a nameless yell of anger, helplessness, and sorrow all in one.

"Oh, Snow…" whispered Vanille.

Fang, too, felt her heart go out to her old companion. Though she had only met Serah briefly while she was trapped in her desire illusion, she had been impressed with the young, at first seemingly fragile woman. To break free of the illusion by her own will spoke volumes of inner fortitude and resolution; she had clearly seen in that moment how Serah was Lightning's sister. She had also seen during their trials as l'Cie just how deeply Snow loved his fiancée, and how much Lightning loved her younger sibling. To have gone through so much only to have Serah ripped away…she truly did feel for all of them. She couldn't even begin to imagine enduring such…

"But still, what about Lightning? What…why was she…?"

"What you saw," clarified Noel, his voice strengthening with conviction. "Was undoubtedly true. You saw Lightning on the Throne of Etro. With the Goddess dead, Lightning must be the only thing left keeping the separation of the worlds. Without the Heart of Chaos, she is the only remaining legacy of Etro—the only thing holding what's left of the gate together, or at least holding the rest of the chaos back."

"The gate?" asked Fang, cursing how stupid she sounded as soon as the words left her mouth.

"Etro's Gate, it's the entrance—"

"We all know what it is," she corrected. "It's the entrance to the afterlife, named after the Lady of Death herself, but what does that have to do with Etro beyond the name? Why should her "death" matter for the gateway at all? Hasn't the barrier always been there? Why is it dissolving now?"

Noel injected sharply. "Etro maintains the balance, and the Gate is the conduit for that balance. Without her, the Gate is gone, and there's nothing to hold back chaos from enveloping our world."

"But," stuttered Vanille. "But that hasn't happened. Well not entirely, I mean. That is, the end of the world hasn't happened completely, because we're all still here, right? Oh…you know what I'm trying to say."

"The little lady has a point," conceded Sahz. "A lot of chaos erupted initially, but it seems like it's slowed down, or hit a plateau or something."

"Which makes sense now, considering what you told us saw before you woke up," continued Noel. "Lightning…Lightning was, no, _is_ Etro's Champion. Even with Etro gone, she must still be a remaining vestige of the Goddess's will. She must be keeping things as they are, preventing Valhalla from entirely merging with our world. _She's _why not all of the chaos has been released, why the end hasn't come yet."

It was almost too much information to absorb, but Fang and Vanille had gone through having their entire world change once. They could handle it again. Vanille broke the stillness first.

"So…so what now?"

Hope's brow furrowed as he bowed his head downward. "I don't know."

"What do you mean _you_ _don't know_?"

"What are we supposed to do, Fang? Do you have any more answers than the rest of us?" Snow had the angry desperation of a man who had lost hope.

Silence reigned. It seemed as though there was nothing to say in the face of the dire and fatalistic question—there was no easy answer. In the space of a heartbeat, Fang had made her decision.

"Let's go get Lightning."

Everyone except Vanille stared incredulously at Fang as soon as she uttered the statement. It seemed so ludicrously simplistic, they struggled to form words. For once, it Snow who found his voice first.

"But, Fang—"

"But what?" she argued, her brow hardening. She pointed out at the window, at the floating structure that they had identified as the Temple of Etro. "That's it, isn't it? That's where she should be. So let's do it."

"But if Lightning _is_ the one keeping…" began Noel, sounding uncertain.

Fang sighed and tried to explain herself better.

"Look, maybe it won't be so easy as it seems, and maybe it's not even what Lightning wants at the moment. All I know is, when me and Vanille crystallized again to hold up Cocoon, when we were in that pillar and you all woke up all alive and whole on the plains, Lightning called out to us then and there. She'd only been reunited with her own sister for a few minutes, but she swore a promise to help us back out. We heard her promise, and I yelled at the bloody woman to forget about us and to live her life, but she shut us out. She was determined to do everything in her power to get us back, whether we liked it or not."

Fang trailed off as she walked toward the window. She remembered the moment as clear as day, even after a five hundred year slumber. In those precious few minutes before Lightning had been ripped out of the mortal timeline, her will to get back to Fang and Vanille had roared louder than a trumpet. Now, as she stared at the misty form of the Temple of Etro, the vision of a crystal woman and throne emblazoned in her mind, she could only help but think that while many would say everything had changed as the world literally fell into chaos, for her, nothing had changed.

"I refuse to do any less for her." Fang turned back toward her comrades, felt Vanille step up to her side. "Now who's up for an old fashioned rescue mission?"

For the first time since Serah had died, they all felt the oppressive darkness start to lighten from over them; as they looked at Vanille's encouraging smile and Fang's ever teasing smirk, for the first time in what felt like forever, all of them—even Noel, who had known the Oerban natives only through second-hand stories—felt the first flicker of hope spark back to life.


	3. Search and Spotlight

The Forgotten Legacies

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Legal Disclaimer: The Final Fantasy series is owned my Square Enix, not me.

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_First, a kind thank you to all of you who left reviews last time. As a side note, if you do have specific questions, I usually like to answer via PM, which is obviously an issue for anonymous reviews. _

_So, for the case of reviewer "i", to respond, I'll say that my memory must be lacking. I only remember from the one cut scene with Fang and Vanille where Serah is trapped in her illusion: I recall there that Fang/Vanille both mention getting Serah out so that she can help her "friend", but I don't remember them talking in any more detail about Noel. Of course, your concerns are a valid point, so all I can truly defend myself with is artistic license =)_

_Anyway, here is Chapter 3. As is stated on my profile, I will be on hiatus for most of June while I do some international travelling and have very limited computer and internet access. That being the case, I am hoping to try and get out one more chapter before I leave in early June, but you may not see another update until more like July. My apologies (I hate waiting for updates, too!)_

_Please enjoy, and reviews, questions, and criticisms, are always welcome!_

_~Logos_

**Ch. 3 Search and Spotlight**

Fang leaned against the wall of the hangar, watching with shadowed eyes as Hope directed soldiers to finish loading up and outfitting the small aircraft they would be using to make their journey.

Sahz was already in the ship, presumably warming up his pilot seat, while both Snow and Noel were helping organize supplies.

She didn't feel particularly guilty about keeping her position here in the corner; she knew that any help she could offer right now wouldn't be useful. The boys had everything under control, so anything she did now would likely just slow them down. Her eyes inadvertently narrowed as she watched a few PSICOM troops finish some diagnostic work on the airship.

"It's strange working alongside them, isn't it Fang?"

Fang turned to meet Vanille's unusually solemn profile as her sister silently joined her side. Vanille was watching the proceedings in the hangar just as closely as Fang had been. She didn't need to specify who she was talking about; Fang knew exactly what she meant. Nonetheless, Fang took the moment to study her young sister for a long second, marking the serious lines of her face. It was rare for Vanille to let that seriousness show through so clearly. She always did her best to maintain her upbeat outlook.

_Someone has to keep looking up!_

Vanille had told her that once, nearly a thousand years ago now. Fang just wished that there wasn't always such an oppressive reason for Vanille to have to try so hard. You shouldn't have to search for a reason to be happy.

She stretched and pushed away from the wall. "Yeah, but what can do about it, huh? At least they're on our side this time around."

Vanille smiled at Fang's nonchalant response, seeing through the façade of calm that her older sister was putting on for her. She had been though just as much hardship as Fang; wars, Focuses, crystallizations…none of it mattered. Fang would always be there to try to protect her, and she for Fang. It was why they were sisters, blood or no.

Their quiet seclusion was finally interrupted by Hope. He strode up purposefully toward them. It was still hard for Fang to adapt to how much the little squirt had grown.

"Are you two ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be for unknown danger and adventure." Grabbing her lance for show, Fang then noticed the weapon at Hope's own hip and couldn't help but tease. "Really, Hope? You still use that _boomerang_ as your main weapon?"

Hope's cheeks flushed with embarrassment, though he refused to give ground, sticking his chin out stubbornly. "H-Hey! It gets the job done."

"I'm sure it does," she laughed.

Now completely flustered, Hope made for a quick exit. "Anyway, I came over here to say we're about ready to go, so make sure you're set."

As he walked back to the ship, Vanille chided Fang. "Be nice, Fang."

She waved her hands to placate. "I'll try, I'll try."

No promises, though. Teasing was in her very nature. She stood and grabbed Kain's Lance, subconsciously comforted by the familiar touch of the weapon beneath her calloused and experienced grip.

She quirked her head to the side and turned toward Vanille. "Shall we?"

They moved away from their spot along the wall toward the airship, their companions already boarding before them. All except one, who stayed at the ramp loading in a few last supplies.

"Snow," murmured Vanille. She didn't have to say anything further for Fang to understand what she meant.

"I know, Van, I know."

Snow was not the same man that they had known. That young, often brash individual—the one that Fang had to personally beat into submission over the ruins of Lake Bresha in order to simply get him to listen—was changed. He had been the persevering hero, never to be set back or put down by anything for longer than a few seconds. If Fang would tear down the sky for Vanille, Snow would rebuild it for Serah. His pig-headed upbeat determination to save Serah had been almost bafflingly unflinching. Nothing and no one, including Lightning in a bad mood, ever deterred him.

In the past day since reawakening, Fang had barely any time to reacquaint herself with her old comrades—they were all busy preparing for this mission now. Even so, Snow had been quiet and reserved. When Fang had greeted him in the hall earlier in the morning as "hero", he had given a forced grin instead of the usual thumbs up.

And could she blame him?

Stasis was one thing, but there was no rescuing from death.

True, death was a constant threat that always lurked around the corner for the l'Cie, but time after time they evaded it, escaping each encounter whole and relatively unscathed. So while that ultimate ending ever remained a menacing shadow, it was one that, despite the dangerous road they followed, often seemed beyond them. Luck at times made them complacent. Even so, for one of them to have paid that final price, to have succumbed to death…and for it to be Serah of all people…it was hard enough for them to swallow, but for Snow, they could not even begin to comprehend. But what was harder still to come to terms with exactly how—or how not—it had happened.

Where had Snow been while Serah had been off repairing time paradoxes with Noel? _Why_ hadn't he been there? These were just a few of the seemingly endless list of questions that were stored in the back of both Fang and Vanille's heads. But at least the ones regarding Snow and Serah were questions that could not be easily asked, even by people as willing to prod as the two Oerbans. It was all too readily apparent to them that the very questions they had were the same ones that Snow himself lacked answers to, and that wracked him in the aftermath of his fiancée's death.

Fang studied the lines on his face as they reached the ship. She didn't know if they would ever have the answers, but she wished dearly for Snow to find some sense of peace out of the mission they were embarking on.

"Alright, kids," hollered Sahz from within the ship. He hadn't changed a single iota. "We gonna get going already or not?"

"Keep your shirt on, gramps! We're coming already!" yelled Snow, sounding marginally more like himself. He turned to politely hold a hand out toward Vanille as she boarded the plane.

"Well?" he asked, looking at Fang while Vanille climbed into the ship. She recognized the vaguest hint of a familiar sparkle in his sapphire eyes. "Have we got a princess to save or what?"

That was the "hero" she knew. He was older and hardened, particularly by recent events, but he was still in there.

"Hey!" she mocked, grinning as she faux punched him in the shoulder. "I'll be doing the saving of our sweet-tempered damsel here!"

And at the moment, they were lucky said princess was not present or she would have undoubtedly punched both of them for referring to her as such. Not waiting for Sahz to yell at them again, Fang climbed into the airship, helping Snow to close and seal the boarding door behind them. Though everyone else was seated, Fang deigned to stand behind the pilot and co-pilot seats where Sahz and Hope were, giving her a better view of everything that was going on. Sahz didn't seem to mind. He punched a few different brightly colored buttons in the control panel.

"Alright, everybody—Operation Save the Princess has commenced!" announced Hope, a smile reaching from nearly ear to ear.

_Oh, yes…Sunshine would have all of our heads right now if she could._

There was a heightened mechanical whirring as the engines glowed into life, but otherwise the airship was noticeably quieter than the last one Fang had been on. Granted, that had been half a millennia ago.

Once the ceiling doors opened they easily floated out of the hangar and into the free air over the city, beginning to accelerate and navigate up and through the towering buildings with a soft hum.

The city itself was all too quiet, especially considering its size and spread. There were a few scattered groups of PSICOM soldiers patrolling the streets and in small hovercraft here and there, but especially on the outer edges of the city and closer to the chaos plumes, it was devoid of life. Those civilians who were left had long since moved in to the Academy and military center of the city, abandoning the rest. It was a desolate scene that brought back too many hard memories of the War of Transgressions, or at least what fragments Fang still remembered of it.

However, the skies were unlike anything she'd ever seen. They were an eerie decoration of Unseen World, alternating with the empty floating stone buildings that had emerged from Valhalla and the slowly moving bands of chaos. And hanging in the sky over everything—over the city, over the crystal remnants of Cocoon, over Gran Pulse itself—was Bhunivelze, Hope's ark for the descendants of Cocoon.

Vanille and she had asked him earlier about it. They had asked why. Why had he needed to make this grand, new human-built version of the old Cocoon? It made no sense to her.

_ "We needed another option. Even with you two in the crystal pillar, it wasn't going to last—Cocoon was going to fall. We needed a second Cocoon. This time one made by humans, for humans. No fal'Cie influence."_

_ "But why?" persisted Fang. "Why not just, you know, let it fall? You had all migrated down to Gran Pulse anyway."_

_ "It would have meant war, Fang. Without a Cocoon, everything would have fallen into civil war. And that war would have destroyed the future."_

_ Both Fang and Vanille looked disbelievingly at Noel, before looking back at each other. All that over a bloody abandoned viper's nest that was just an ornament in the sky? She mentally took another note about her Cocoonian friends: they were _all_ at least a little bit insane._

_ "So it was going to be your new home? Then why call it an ark?" asked Vanille._

_ "Because it was an ark, at least for the initial plans. We knew that Cocoon would collapse as soon as we pulled you both out of the pillar, and we were worried that Caius would attack while we rescued you and launched Bhunivelze, so most of the populous hid inside Bhunivelze for the launch, so they wouldn't be exposed and open in the city."_

_ "You mean everyone else is still in there? Why hasn't the military regrouped with them?" Fang's eyes had flickered toward the second moon and its dark shadow of chaos._

_ "We tried sending relay signals, radio frequencies, everything. Nothing got through or came back from the chaos, just…static."_

_"Well, what about all of the people, then? Why haven't you done anything, rescued any of them? Don't tell me…"_ _Vanille had trailed off, assuming the worst._

_"No," corrected Hope, his voice both soft and somber. "We did try. We gave up after the second squad disappeared into it, too."_

Currently, the ark—Bhunivelze—though still spherical in general shape, was shrouded in a heavy and constant haze of chaos. Dark plumes of energy erupted all along the surface of the floating moon, ever moving and shadowing the true form of the second Cocoon. But within that all-consuming darkness, there was the occasional flicker of shimmering light from the inner depths. It was not a clear or comforting light, like that of the sun or stars. It was bubbling and queasy, like refractions on a layer of grease, and watching it made Fang feel both ill and uneasy.

She fought back a shiver, and forced her eyes away from it. Why these people were so obsessed with having a floating moon of some sort or another was beyond her. She was more than fine with keeping a home on the solid ground of Mother Pulse. Besides, they had other concerns to currently occupy them.

On the far side of the ark, beyond even the massive sprawl of the city, there floated a large, solitary structure. It stood taller than any of the other buildings that had flickered across the barrier from Valhalla, its skyward reaching spires decorated with huge inorganic swathes of crystal. It was the Temple of Etro, where Lightning sat upon the crystal throne of the Goddess, and where their destination lay.

As they passed around Bhunivelze, they began to pick up even more speed, honing in on their target. It was smooth aerial sailing until, without any warning, the airship suddenly bucked laterally, not from turbulence, but as if somewhat else had physically rammed into the side of their craft.

"What the hell was that?" yelled Snow.

Sahz declined to answer, instead gritting his teeth and issuing a terse command. "Hold on back there! Things are about to get really bumpy."

No sooner had he said that then ship reeled and rolled violently, like a paper boat hitting strong river rapids.

"Oh, fuck th—"

"Fang!" wailed Vanille, grabbing her back to their seats with a surprisingly iron grip given her size.

A few seconds later, she was glad that Vanille had forced her back into her buckled seat. The airship was quickly buffeted by successive waves of chaotic turbulence, and had they not been strapped down, they would have been flung across the room.

"Damn chaos clouds!" Sahz cursed from the cockpit. Both of his hands were fighting with the steering control, no longer concerned with keeping on course but with trying to prevent the ship from stalling as an alarm began to sound. "It almost like it's targeting us!"

"Maybe it is," uttered Noel. It was a dark thought, but not one that surprised any who managed to overhear his comment. The chaos, as wildly unpredictable as it was, often seemed to operate with a sinister mind of its own; it was all too easy to believe that it was doing just that right now. Nonetheless, Shaz managed to fly through the roiling skies, almost anticipating the worst of surges and still directing them closer to the Temple of Etro.

But just as the chaos turbulence started to smooth out, another vicious wave buffeted the ship, this time making it completely barrel roll, and a loud explosion from the rear shook the entire frame of the craft.

Fang leaned out of her window to see a heavy, thick bellow of smoke trailing out from where one of their engines was supposed to be. She had a bare moment to think about how bad that was before Sahz yelled, "We're going down!" His voice barely rose over the deafening wail of the alarm. As if to punctuate everything, the interior lights were flashing bright red in final warning of their now uncontrolled free fall.

Fang hugged Vanille to her tightly, wishing not for the first time that she could still summon Bahamut. It seemed like nearly every airship she rode on was doomed to an inevitable crash, usually with her still on board. But left without an eidolon this time, she did the only thing she could: she held on for dear life and prayed that Sahz's piloting skills were still up to par.

Luckily for all of them, where another pilot would have lost control of the craft, Sazh fought the entire way, trying to force their small vessel into a more of a gliding descent instead of stalling nosedive. He mostly succeeded, though there was much yelling and cursing involved, and not just from him.

For a crash landing, it was relatively smooth—which was to say, they managed to actually land right side up, screeching and quaking with strain as the metal belly of the ship ripped into the paved city road. Vanille whimpered into Fang as the grounded airship groaned and twisted around them, noisily breaking apart as they finally, finally, slowed and then lurched to a painful stop.

While the red lights continued to flash on and off, at least the siren had stopped, though it was now replaced by an automated training voice that kept repeating emergency deboarding instructions.

There was a long second of silence, punctuated only by the heaving breathing of all of the passengers. Snow was the first to act, throwing off a ceiling panel that had come loose and fallen during the landing. He ripped out of his seat restraints.

"Is everyone okay?"

"I've been better, but still in one piece," responded Noel, undoing his belt restraints at a more leisurely pace.

Everyone else began slowly extricating themselves from their seats, wobbly but still very much alive.

"Shit," growled Fang, pushing her hair back from her face as guided Vanille out toward the exit hatch that Snow had opened. She felt dirty, scraped up, and pretty darn well beaten. And to top it all off, they had nothing to show for it.

They filed out onto the massive street that Sahz had managed to land them on, with little more than a few scrapes and bruises to show for their vain attempt. Hope was already dialing in a call to troops for an emergency rescue of their sorry asses. And as for the Temple of Etro that they had been so close to reaching, it was floating across the heavens, now somehow in the exact opposite direction from whence they had flown.

"Shit," muttered Fang a second time, looking up at the persistently distant and unreachable form of temple in the sky beyond Bhunivelze.

This was clearly going to be far more difficult than what any of them had thought.


End file.
